


Save the Redhead, Save the World

by quicksylver28



Category: Archie Comics, Predator Series
Genre: Blood and Gore, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, NANOWRIMO Rough Trade 2015, Time Travel, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 11:18:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5454680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksylver28/pseuds/quicksylver28
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Betty just knew that this was going to be the BEST SUMMER EVER! She had a great summer gig at a cool historical dig site, a shot at a great scholarship and lots of time to spend with her crush/ boyfriend Archie Andrews. Things couldn't be more perfect right?</p><p>Wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

[](http://s284.photobucket.com/user/Ziela_Hime/media/12072545_991760770844390_1574950982795533108_n_zpspi6j9oef.jpg.html)

" Excuse me. Pardon me. Make a hole people, coming through"

The sun was barely peaking over the hills of Riverdale as Betty Cooper shouldered her way through the crush of protesters. Their numbers seemed to grow each day since the construction site was shut down just two weeks ago. Half of the crowd was made up of Lodge Construction employees, unhappy that their work and therefore their pay had been stopped, albeit temporarily.

The rest were supporters of the court ordered work stop, whether it be in support of the local archaeological society or because of general anti-Lodge sentiment. Either way, the situation had been getting more and more tense each passing day.

She barely just managed to keep a hold on her folders and tray holding three hot coffees as she finally broke through the milling crowd and ducked neatly under the yellow caution tape. She nodded to the bored looking security guard and picked her way across the debris strewn site, skirting around the massive construction equipment to where a small tent was set up.

"Hey Doc… Hey Dillyweed" she smiled, slapping her brightly coloured plastic folders and bag unto the plastic table, scattering the mess of papers and maps piled upon it.

Dilton Doily harrumphed and used his middle finger to push his black horn rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"You said you weren't going to call me that anymore Cooper. Unless you want me to start back with "Betty Spaghetti" again."

"Aww Dilly…" she throws an arm over his shoulders, ruffling his dark curls with a laugh. "You were more fun before you became such a hipster. Where is the boy who marathoned Harry Potter with me? The books mind you… not the movies. Did someone do a banishing spell on your sense of humour? Do you need me to cast accio?"

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. " he smirked, folding his arms across his chest.

"This from a boy wearing a graphic tee that says "Don't Blink" she deadpanned.

"RIDDIKULUS" She snapped her wrist with a sudden flick and swish. " ... Nothing?… just checking."

She flipped her blonde hair in a pretend huff that had the dark haired boy smiling into his coffee and turned to their companion under the small tent.

"How about you Professor? Have you 'put away' all childish things?"

"Oh my… thank you my dear." The older man blinked and cleared his throat, accepting the coffee she held out to him. "Well, I've always believed that 'The great man is he that does not lose his child's-heart'."

"Mencius right?" Betty grinned.

"Why yes…" the Professor chuckled. "…very good Ms Cooper. Ten points to Ravenclaw."

The blonde laughed as Dilton groaned loudly and rolled his eyes.

Professor DeMarco was the president of the Riverdale Archaeological Society and the history teacher at Riverdale High school. One of Betty's favorite teachers in fact. Despite his mousy demeanor and salt and paper beard, he was passionate about his subject and made history exiting to learn and often engaged the class in heated debate about subjects that would normally have the students dozing.

At the end of the school year Lodge Construction had come across a half demolished ruin while prepping the foundation for a new strip mall and the professor had been the one who petitioned the courts and won the right to study the ruin before it was completely destroyed. Even though Mr. Lodge owned half of Riverdale and had more money than God, he hadn't been able to stop the injunction. But the society's victory was a hollow one because instead of the six months they had asked for, they'd been given a mere two weeks before work would resume.

So when the professor had asked for volunteers for the dig Betty had been one of the first to sign up, even though this was the beginning of her final summer before graduation and all of her friends would be having fun on the beach or lounging by the pool. It didn't matter to Betty though because she would be helping on an actual archaeological dig site… with authentic artifacts and everything. She'd been so excited.

Today was the last day of the stoppage and while they'd discovered a few strange symbols carved into the stones and the signs of ancient life, they had made no truly significant discoveries as of yet. The construction crews were already hovering near the barrier tape like buzzards in the early morning and she did her best to ignore them as the Professor addressed the gathered sleepy volunteers. They would be working down to the wire today and so everyone had been called out extra early.

Most of them were local college students here for the extra credits they'd been promised, some, like Betty, were enthusiasts and members of the Archaeological Society, and others still….

"Can anyone tell me why I had to get out of bed at the ass crack of dawn to play in the dirt looking for old things? The only mud I want on my gorgeous skin is the Dead Sea Mud Wrap from 'Oh My Spa' at Daddy's country club." a nasal voice came from behind her.

She turned to the frowning redhead dressed in a D'ior romper and Prada flats, a bright yellow Berkin bag hooked in the crook of her elbow. Betty figured that it was the most casual outfit she'd seen Blossom heiress in… well, ever.

"Why are you even here Cheryl?" Betty sighed heavily, shaking her head as she shrugged off her large plaid over shirt and tied it around her waist. The sun was starting the warm the air and soon enough it would be sweltering at the dig site.

"You're not here for college credits. This job doesn't pay at all and you can't say that you need the money anyway. Why aren't you hopping daddy's private jet to St. Bart's or Ibiza or something with your tool of a twin brother? Isn't summer your kind's mating season or something?"

The redhead pursed her lips and looked Betty up and down, smug judgment shining in her green eyes.

"I don't know how you feel about your education Cooper but this is exactly the kind of superfluous crap that matters when it comes to spicing up applications for college scholarships. I'm just getting ahead of the game. Did you know that the Lodges are going to be doubling their usual grant next year? Just in time for graduation you know."

"Whether it's an attempt by Daddy and Mummy Lodge to secure good grades for their darling Veronica or if they're paying in advance for any shenanigans our little Ronnie will surely get up to this year, it doesn't really matter to me. That's enough for a full ride at Berkley or any other Ivy league school in the country and I plan to be the one get it."

"But… but…" Betty sputtered, "Your dad's loaded. You can afford to go anywhere you wanted. That scholarship is for students who can't afford those opportunities. That's not really fair. "

"This isn't about fair, Cooper…It's about winning." Cheryl scoffed over her shoulder as she walked away, "… and I always win. Ta losers"

Betty scowls as she watches the redhead traipse down the small path to where the other volunteers were working.

"Can you believe her? she mumbles under her breath. "What a royal bitch."

Dilton hums agreement. "What I trouble believing is that the nitwit actually used the word 'superfluous' correctly in a sentence. My mind is officially boggled."

Betty snorted. "Don't let that ditzy little rich girl image fool you Dilly. The Blossoms are all sharks in human skin. Every last one of them. The only reason Cheryl isn't seriously vying for valedictorian is because she doesn't want to waste time that could be spent shopping or tanning."

"Come on" She bumped shoulders with Dilton "…bet you a dollar I find something before you that makes the professor blink and say 'oh my!'."

Dilton narrowed his eyes at her. "Make that a milkshake at Pop's Diner and it’s a deal."

Betty grinned and slung her equipment belt around her waist. "You're on."

[](http://s284.photobucket.com/user/Ziela_Hime/media/12031523_996906750329792_5083755987810175618_o_zpszrj0jvkm.jpg.html)


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was high in the sky by the time Betty looked up from her squared off section. She sat back on her haunches, wiped the back of her hand across her sweaty forehead and set down the small brush she'd been using to clear away layer after layer of dust from more of the carved bricks that littered the site. Shaking the cramp from her hand, she accepted a bottle of water from a passing volunteer and drank two thirds of it in one go. 

Taking off her wide brimmed hat, she poured the rest of the water over her head. The day was getting hotter and heat stroke was a real danger on any dig site. Two volunteers had learned their lesson the hard way during the first week. It was the only time she'd seen the professor that angry. He'd told them all baldly on the third day to either follow his rules about proper hydration and rest periods or leave the site immediately. After that he'd been like a hawk, honing in anyone looking remotely parched at a dozen paces and brusquely sending them to the shade of the tent.

She usually set her watch to beep every half hour because once she got into the groove of brushing the dirt away and uncovering the wonder underneath, she usually found her mind drifting away and she'd lose all track of time. She checked her watch, ten minutes until the next alarm. She frowned, wondering what had made her look up in the first place. As she looked around for the reason, she could hear raised voices from the small tent. Quickly she stood, dusting off her sore knees and gingerly made her way up the small path.

As she grew closer she could see a cherry red convertible parked near the tent. It seemed odd that a vehicle would be allowed this far unto the site but as she grew closer and saw the DADDYZGRL plates, she suddenly understood. Side stepping around the crowded tent she sidled up to the car, grabbing another bottle of water from a large cooler. 

"Hey V, Papa Lodge has you playing chauffeur today?" 

"Ugh" the olive skinned girl leaning against the door of the car rolled her eyes behind her D&G sunglasses, her long dark hair tumbling in waves over her bare shoulders. She tucked her phone into the pocket of her light summer frock and huffed.

"Ever since Driver slipped a disk trying to move that big armoire in Mummy's dressing room, Daddy's been insufferable. It's all 'Drive me here Dustr… Drive me here … I just want to spend time with you… is this how you honour your Father?' I mean, we have at least ten cars in the garage and he's had his driver's license since the stone age!"

Betty chuckled and leaned a hip against the car, cracking open the water bottle as the Lodge Heiress went on.

If anyone were to ask her how she became friends with someone like Veronica Lodge, she'd be hard pressed to answer them. They seemed total opposites on paper. Betty, a blonde haired blue eyed girl from a middle class family. Sweet, kind, hardworking, athletic and naturally outgoing, Betty was the kind of 'everygirl' from all the summer romance chick flicks. Let's face it… she was frikkin' Sandra Dee.

Veronica on the other hand was rich, entitled, alluring, mysterious and a stunning dark beauty with her Armenian heritage and vast family wealth. Born with a platinum spoon in her mouth because silver was 'just so tacky', Veronica was the kind of girl that led boys around by the nose and enjoyed doing so immensely. Her tongue was as sharp as a knife's edge and one look from her smoldering eyes could burn someone's social life to veritable ash. Yet, behind that diamond hard brilliance, was a girl who Betty had, over the years, come to see as a genuine friend. 

Although, It didn't help matters that the two girls were practically 'eternal rivals' over the same boy. 

"… not to mention this thing with the site. This 'dig' thing had really been stuck up in Daddy's craw something awful. I mean, what's the big deal? It's only a couple of weeks. Let the nerds play in the dirt if they want. It's not like they're digging up the panna cotta army or anything."

Veronica continued, looking over the small dig site with a frown.

"Hey" Betty grumped, "as one of those 'nerds playing in the dirt' I have to object to that. And it may not be the TERRACOTTA army but we've found stone carvings that may just predate the founding of Riverdale itself and may just change the recorded history of this area as we know it."

Veronica gave a long suffering sigh, pulling her phone back out her pocket. 

"Whatevs B. Whatever little cave man crawled out of his hovel ages ago to scratch against a rock doesn't change the fact that I could be at the mall right now buying a new bikini to wear to the lake this weekend. A bunch of us are going to spend Saturday at the lake house with a bonfire and everything. Too bad you can't come right? Aren't you helping the professor catalogue all the little rocks and things?." 

"It's going to be so much fun.." She looks at Betty coyly from the corner of her eye. "… with Archie being there and all."

Betty frowned, crushing her water bottle a little as she tensed. "I thought he had to work at the auto shop this weekend?" 

"No, he traded shifts and got the weekend off." The brunette gave a small kittenish smile. "He didn't tell you?"

Betty felt a trickle of irritation flash through her. Just the thought of Veronica traipsing around in front of Archie in a new and sure to be sensational swimsuit or snuggling up to him in front of a massive bonfire on the beach really creamed her corn. She sometimes wondered why she ever agreed to the strange love triangle dating arrangement the three of them had come up with after the infamous summer of discontent and petty jealousy had almost imploded their friendship.

In the end both girls had agreed to date Archie simultaneously, neither willing to let the ginger boy go. There would be no going past second base, no using sex to tip the scales, no back biting, no sabotage, no hogging of Archie's free time. They would do this until Archie decided who he wanted to date full time. 

It seemed kind of cold and contrived from the outside, she guessed, but then again… it was a strange circumstance. 

Of course it never really worked out like planned. She and Veronica often traded little snipes and took pleasure in one upping each other on a regular basis. Betty had seen the devious streak within her grow exponentially in the past year, much to her dismay and secret elation. They were best friends and worst enemies at the same time. 

Of course Archie waffled between them both like a metronome, never choosing outright, even when backed into a corner, both metaphorically and one time physically, by two very determined young women. And while Betty thought him a bit of a coward for not making a choice even after so long [a whole frikkin' year, geez louise], she was also afraid of what his choice would be when he finally made it. Not that she didn't have a health sense of self-esteem, but she was a realist and knew how she stacked up against THE Veronica Lodge as girlfriend material.

She pushed the irritation down with a hard swallow and tried to shrug nonchalantly. 

"There's always next time. We have all summer."

"Of course, of course" Veronica hmmd, tapping the edge of her phone against her lips in seeming contemplation.

"It's just that with all our different plans for the summer vacay, we may not get a chance to get everyone together again like this. Lord knows Daddy won't let me have the run of the lake house for much longer. This work stop has him turning his eye unto our other properties and he's decided the lake house needs a complete reno. The crews are coming in next week. It will be unlivable for the rest of the summer. Ch, what a waste."

An angry shout forestalled any further conversation and had them both whipping around to face the tent. 

"It's like pulling teeth with you people, scratching in the dirt like chickens for what?... Rubble? It costs me $40,000.00 a day to keep this equipment here, to keep the operators housed and fed for doing nothing but wait for you eggheads to quit playing at being Indiana Jones." 

Hiram Lodge was fine form today, Betty could tell. He had that apoplectic look on his reddening face that he usually reserved for Archie's shenanigans, his white moustache jumping like a bristling hedgehog as he ranted. He was all but looming over Professor DeMarco, who looked pretty hot under the collar himself.

"We are doing important work here Mr. Lodge..." he huffed, " …more important than any monetary sum. Think about our community, our history…."

"The only thing I am thinking about is my bottom line. How do I tell my investors that the project was held back for two whole weeks by some some… apushi ugheghi… who wanted to save some pebbles that nobody even cares about?"

"I beg your pardon Sir…" the Professor puffed, "… I must say that Courts must have cared enough about our 'pebbles' to grant us this 'two whole weeks' to study them."

"Why you.." Mister Lodge turned a dark red that had Veronica starting forward.

"Daddy!" she plastered herself to his side, hugging his arm. "Remember your blood pressure Daddy. You said you'd take better care of yourself after the last visit from Doctor. Come on papa, you promised me. You wouldn't break a promise to your little karchlik now would you?"

And didn't that just boil Mr. Lodge down like a noodle. 

"But sweetheart…" he protested.

"No Daddy." She pouted. "The silly injunction is ending today at six pm anyway. Then you can toss them and their silly rocks out on their ears and no one can stop you. Wouldn't that make you happy?" 

"Six o'clock." Lodge harruphed and leveled a glare at the Professor before turning and stalking to the car.

Betty mouthed a silent 'thanks' to Veronica as she hurried after her father, receiving shrug and smile in return. Soon enough the little red vehicle was roaring out of the site, kicking up enough dust leave the rest of them coughing.

"Oh my…" the professor sighed heavily and took off his glasses to clean them with the end of his sleeve. "What a dreadful man."

Betty shrugged, not willing to say anything against her best friends dad. Even though the Lodge magnate had a public persona as a ruthless hard ass, she'd seen with her own eyes how he was with his daughter and wife. How he loved and honoured them and showed them a kind of respect that 'nicer' men would never show.

She reached into the cooler and pulled out a water bottle.

" Here, drink this Professor D." she guided him to sit in a nearby chair. "you're looking a little heated."

"Yes yes. Thank you my dear." he sighed again, wilting a bit. "…you heard that man though. We only have until six today and then this precious site will be forever destroyed. It's such a pity." 

"It'll be ok Prof. We already have most of the carvings packed up and ready to take to the College. We just need to rally and give it one last push. How about it?"

A shout cut off the man's reply.

"Hey Hey You guys!... Hey Down here!" Dilton came gasping up the path, stopping at the tent to catch his breath.

Bracing his hands on his knees as he struggled to suck in air, he looked up at them with wild, excited eyes.

"There's …. It's…[whew]" he panted with a grin. "… oh man, you're so gonna want to see this." 

Soon enough they shoulder their way through the gathered volunteers and stop short in surprise. There, in the middle of a nondescript patch of dirt, lay an ornate carved medallion. Of what type of stone Betty could not determine. Even through the wear and tear of the ages and copious amounts of dirt and dust still encrusted upon the smooth surface, it still gleamed like polished marble in the light.

The stone was black, almost luminous with red veins running through it. The same symbols that graced the other stones discovered were also carved on this one, but to a much higher degree. They lead from the edges of the circular medallion towards the centre where a red rounded stone was set, the size of a fisted hand.

It looked like an opal, the shadows and light almost seem to jump and twist within the heart of the stone itself. Betty felt a chill down her back, despite the heat of the sun. she shivered, rubbing her hands along her arms, soothing the goose bumps raised. A loud squeal made her jerk and look up.

Cheryl Blossom was telling everyone within hearing distance about how she and she alone discovered the large stone, despite the fact that she looked as pristine as she did when she first arrived.

"… And that's not even the best part!" She gushed, waving at Dilton impatiently. "Show them the best part fool."

With a irritated look and eye roll, Dilton picked up several small stones from nearby and motioned for silence. Then, with a grin, he tipped the stones into one of several cut out sections of the medallion. There was a second of silence then a number of plips and plinks as the stones hit and bounced off hard surfaces of the space below.

"A Cave?" she gasped.

"A Cave." he confirmed.

"And I found it!" Cheryl beamed.

Professor DeMarco coughed and cleared his throat several times. 

"Oh My!" he said weakly, his eyes fixed on the carved stone. 

Dilton slung an arm around Betty's shoulder and hugged her to his side.

"I believe you owe me a milkshake my friend."

Betty pursed her lips and gave him a sideways look.

"Technically, I may owe Cheryl that milkshake Dilly. She found it after all."

Dilton scoffed. "Anything the Crimson Menace may have 'found' is circumspect at best. As far as I'm concerned, I am the victor here."

She tilted her head as she watched Cheryl point impatiently at a dirt caked spot that another volunteer had missed on HER stone, her bright yellow berkin still hooked on her elbow as she snapped pictures with her cell.

That girl really was something else alright.

"I'll agree to those terms." Betty nodded, smiling as they shared a high five.

Just then, a loud crack echoed through the site, silencing every voice. 

"What the Hell was that?" Cheryl screeched, stamping her foot.

Another crack, louder than the first. 

Betty tensed, her ears straining as the other volunteers scrambled back. 

"Cheryl my dear…" the professor soothed. "please come away now, there's a good girl."

Two more cracks, one short and then a longer one, accompanied by the hiss of shifting sand.

There was a rumble and Betty could feel the ground under her feet buckle. She gripped Dilton's sleeve as she steadied herself, stumbling closer to the stone in order to keep from falling, pulling the dark haired boy with her.

"What's going on?" Cheryl screeched, this time with more fear than anger. "This is NOT funny. Make it stop ok? Just make it stop right now."

She had her arms spread wide, tilting wildly as she tried to recover her centre of gravity.

"Cheryl…" Betty called, "Just stay calm ok. We're coming to get you."

"We are?" Dilton muttered under his breath.

"Yes we are" Betty hissed back through clenched teeth. She tugged at his shirt. "Come on."

Placing each step carefully, they moved closer to the panicky redhead, freezing every time the ground shuddered or short staccato cracks rent the air. Betty could feel her pulse beating loudly in her ears, every breath a struggle to take. 

Finally, placing one foot against Dilton's and stepping toward Cheryl to disperse her weight, she reached out to the other girl.

"Grab my hand." 

Cheryl sent her a look that could melt glass. "Are you fucking kidding me Cooper?"

Betty huffed. "Just take my hand and we can make our way back the way we came."

"As if…" the redhead scoffed, "… it's much shorter from my side. We should go this way."

"Yes. But…" Dilton let out an exasperated breath. "… the ground between us and you is weaker. If we both try to get to you we'll all fall. It's better for you to come over here so just shut up for once and get your ass over here Blossom."

"You think you're so smart don't you Doi-yee" she sniped, crossing her eyes and drawing out the last word cruelly. "but you're not. My way is the right way to go and I'm going to prove it to you."

"Cheryl no!" Betty shouted as the girls turned on her heels and started scrambling up the small incline, away from Betty and Dilton.

A large rumble and long cracking sound had them all tumbling off their feet, Cheryl sliding down the incline to land in a heap at the bottom, directly on top of the black carved stone. As Betty watched, frozen, the red opal seemed to flash under Cheryl's hand, even as the girl yanked her hand away with a yelp.

Betty looked up into terrified green eyes as ground buckled again, grabbing on to Dilton's arm she stretched out her hand to the other girl desperately. Just as their fingertips brushed together, the loudest groan came up from the ground that froze the very heart of her with terror.

All she could do was scream as the ground opened up and swallowed them whole.


	3. Chapter 3

She opened her eyes to pain and the sound of scrabbling stones. The air was dusty and she blinked rapidly, coughing a little as her eyes slowly focused. Turning her head made her moan, a blurry form above her slowly turning into Dilton's concerned and dusty face.

"Hey, stay still." He soothed, one hand cupping her cheek, " ...don't try to move just yet. It wasn't that far too fall but we can't be too careful. Can you move your feet? Good, How 'bout your fingers? Alright. Let's get you up."

He helped her to sit up slowly, keeping a steady hand along her spinal column as she did so. She looked up at the hole they'd fallen though. It was jagged and bigger than she imagined. Bright sunlight shot through it like a pillar of dazzling light, piercing the utter black of the cave. Eventually her eyes adjusted and she could just see Dilton's form as he moved to explore the edges of the small cavern. 

The sound of sliding stones sent a shot of terror through her and she spun around to see Cheryl trying, unsuccessfully, to climb the steep wall of the cave. Her d'ior romper was dirt smeared and one of the pockets was ripped right open. The bright yellow berkin bag was nowhere in sight. 

As she tackled the climb again and again, sliding back on the loose rocks each time, Betty could hear a unending stream of words coming from the disgruntled redhead's mouth. 

"… sue. Yeah, that's right. I'm gonna sue the pants off of EVERYBODY when I get out of here. This is California! Goddammit. Litigation up the ass is practically our state sport. Lodge Industries, the University, the Historical Society , even professor De Marco they are ALL going to be living in a bloody cardboard box by the time I'm done with them. My father will hear about this, believe you me..." 

Above her, Betty could just out the muffled hubbub of the site, most likely planning their rescue. She wasn't too worried though, the Professor would get them out soon enough. As the redhead slid down the incline once more she let out a short shriek of frustration and stomped away from the wall, kicking absently at a small rock in her path. It skittered across the small cave, hitting Dilton on the leg as he stooped low, running his fingers along the wall.

"Hey watch it!" he yelped, glaring at the irate girl.

"You watch it dickbag." she growled, "This is all you fault, I hope you know that. If you and All American Barbie over here hadn't mucked it all up with your fucked up 'attempt' at rescuing me, I wouldn't be down in this … this HOLE right now."

"Hey" Betty grunted, "How is this our fault? No one could have known that the ground would collapse just then. It was an accident."

"Chee-yeah right." the redhead scoffed, folding her arms over her ample chest." I would have gotten away in time if you two lard asses hadn't been there to bring us down."

Dilton shook his head in disgust. "You're a real piece of work Blossom. Do you even listen to yourself talk sometimes or do you just flap those huge lips and words fall out."

"Lard ass?…. " Betty snarled, "You're the one who fell right on to the damned medallion. I saw the stone flash red when you touched it. The ground fell in right after that. "

The other girl lifted her chin "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Betty pushed herself to her feet angrily, "I saw yow flinch away from it Blossom. Don't deny it. " 

Green eyes flash. "You calling me a liar Cooper?" 

"If the Jimmy Choo fits…"

Cheryl's screech reaches a pitch that only dogs can hear and Dilton is between them before things can get any worse.

"Hey, Come on… let's chill alright?" He turns to each girl, "besides… I've found something you both should see."

It was another circular stone medallion, carved into the rough wall of the cave this time. The difference was in the stone border that were not just carved in obscure patterns like all the others they'd unearthed, but intricately carved with small complex symbols that looked like more like some kind of ancient language than anything else.

"Crap" 

Betty turns to see Dilton Patting the pockets of his cargo pants in irritation.

"Lost my phone when I fell. Betty?" 

She turns out her pockets with a shrug and he slumps. They both look over to Cheryl who is still staring at the medallion. Soon enough she notices them looking at her.

"What?" she snaps.

"DO you have your phone on you?" Betty sighs.

Cheryl gestures wildly with her arms "Do I LOOK like I have my purse with me?"

As Dilton and Cheryl bickered, their voices getting further away as they searched through the rubble for a bright yellow Berkin bag, Betty sighed wearily and pinched the bridge of her nose. 

A pulse of coldness blossomed near her and she startled, her eyes drawn to the carved stone. The deep red veins of the black stone seemed to glow and thrum as if pumping blood through the inky blackness. Yet, instead of the feeling the warmth and vibrance of a beating heart, a unnatural chill seemed to emanate from the crimson centre.

She stepped closer, her fingers drawn to touch the surface. It called to her, even though her brain shrieked in warning. Taking a ragged breath, she reached for the red stone. Blood thrummed loudly in her ears, almost deafening her as she took the final step, her fingertips mere inches away from the smooth heard surface.

"Found it!"

Dilton's yell startled her and she snatches her hand away, shuddering at the cold that seemed to seep under her skin. The flash of a cell phone camera has her blinking and she forces herself to step away from the carved stone while Dilton and Cheryl bickered over the photos being taken. 

Cheryl pulls a hundred dollar bill from her purse and holds it up against the wall near the carving. When they both look at her confused, she rolls her eyes.

"This way we can take accurate measurements from the pictures later." she shrugs,

Dilton quirks a brow. "I'm impressed Blossom. Very Astute."

"Hey, it's from the Bone Collector. If it's good enough for Angelina, it's good enough for me." 

He lets out a long suffering sigh "And there's the Cheryl we all know and loathe."

Betty stared at the medallion, her fingers once again itching to touch the smooth cold surface. She shoved her hands into her pockets, trying to pay attention to what the others were saying but it was proving difficult. Before she knew it she was in front of the medallion, hand outstretched.

She could hear someone say her name but it seemed distant, muffled, as if underwater. Just a little bit more, just a little further to reach. Her fingers brush the ice cold surface and her body spasms as if struck by a quickening. A breathy gasp is ripped from her as the red stone flashes cold in sync with the beat of her heart.

She yanks her hand to her chest as her finger tips burn painfully cold, stumbling back into Dilton who catches and steadies her. His breath is hot against her chilled and clammy skin as he voices his concern and goose bumps raise along her neck and back.

The sound of grinding stone echoes eerily through the small dark cave as the medallion shudders and splits in two. Cheryl shrieks and clutches at them both, her eyes searching the roof for another cave in. As they watched, the medallion split and slid apart revealing a hidden compartment. Within the space sat a long metal rod, exquisitely carved in silver and gold braced on wicked looking metallic claws.

"Whoa" Dilton whispered as he slowly brought the cell up and took a picture.

Together they took a careful step closer to the opening. Dilton ducked his head closer, staring up inside the space.

"I knew it." he hissed, "When I saw the carvings I knew they weren't just ancient ruins. Oh my God. This is so incredible. I knew there was a reason why the symbols didn't look like anything ever seen before. I can't believe it."

"Slow down Geekapalooza…" Cheryl tugged on his arm, "… what are you talking about?"

Betty nodded her agreement, staring at the metal rod. It looked like a dagger, about two feet long, intricately carved with inlays of gold and pearlescent blue in the handle. The blade like end was two pronged with sharp hooked teeth that gave it a savage beauty. Like it had been made for the sole purpose of drawing blood, of brining death.

She felt a tremor at the barely restrained violence that seems to gleam off its wicked edges.

"There's no way that ancient man could do this kind of work, have this kind of technology when this was placed here. Some of the preliminary dating on the stones have come back from the labs at more than 1100 years old."

"So what? They could have been really good at carving back then." Cheryl argued.

Dilton frowns "How would you explain the dagger?"

"Good at carving and metal work?" 

"There's overhead lighting." he said wryly, raising an eyebrow.

Betty smirked, "Expert Carver, Blacksmith AND Electrician? Ancient Man must have been something else back in the day."

Cheryl scrunched up her face at them both. "Fine, who do you think did all this? Aliens?"

She narrows her eyes at the ensuing silence. 

"No way! Are you out of your minds?"

"Just think about it." Dilton defends, shaking off her hands, which had been squeezing his arm painfully.

Betty turned the concept over in her mind. Aliens? Really? It just seemed too unbelievable. But when she looked at the stones, carved with their strange symbols; and the dagger, with its sinister unearthly cold; the idea didn't seem that far fetched.

They would need to study the site more if they wanted answers. Therein lay the problem though. She tugged on Dilton's arm.

"The injunction ends today. Even with this discovery, the court won't extend the work stop."

Dilton cursed, "Surely Mr. Lodge would…. Once he's seen this he would….?"

"Have you even met Papa Lodge?" Cheryl scoffed. "He'll slap us with damages to the work site due to the cave in, unsafe work practices and have DeMarco's archaeological license taken from him so fast it would make his head spin. The only thing that matters is getting his project back up and running, Hell, we could find the Ark of the Covenant down here and he'd still lay concrete over it."

Betty nodded sagely. She knew enough of Veronica's dad to know that they wouldn't get a chance after today to study the discovery.

The shriek of hydraulics had them all jumping and looking up. Out of the blinding sunlight came a metal basket, the size of a phone booth, slowly being lowered into the cave by an overhead crane. Hooked to the cage was a walkie talkie.

A very relieved Professor informed them that they'd had to wait for a crane because the area surrounding the chasm was very unstable and they couldn't risk further collapse. Luckily, the crane operator had been among the protesting workers. 

As they watched the basket slowly lower, Dilton dashed toward their discovery, taking as careful video of the alcove and its deadly looking occupant. 

"What are you doing?" Cheryl demanded, gesturing toward the basket, "... we have to get out of here."

Dilton glanced back over his shoulder. "You said it yourself, Lodge is going to have here swimming in cement by tonight. We may not ever have a chance to check this out again. This video maybe the only proof we ever have."

As they fell into bickering once again, Betty felt a faint tremor travel from her fingertips, up her arm and into the flesh of her shoulder. She clenched her fist with a whimper as it tremored again, twitching violently as she gripped it tightly with her other hand.

The basket clunked to the floor of the cave behind her and before she could even stop herself, she'd grabbed the handle of the dagger and pulled it from the pincers that had held it. Suddenly it was like everything went silent around her but for her own breath. All the voices, the machinery, the shifting rocks, they all fell away leaving her alone with just her heartbeat… and the blade.

Her fingers tightened on the hilt and for a second she saw battlefields awash with blood, the pure pleasure pain of battle, the addictive call of the Goddess of Victory. With this blade she was unstoppable, she was Fury, she was pure Wrath and Dominion, she was…

"BETTY!" 

Hands were at her shoulders, shaking her and it all of her not to bring the blade up, to watch it drink its fill of hot blood, freshly spilt. She shuddered and blinked the thought away.

"Dilly?" she groaned.

"Look" 

His eyes were wide and frightened as he turned her shoulders to face the alcove. The pincers that held the dagger, now closed, were retreating into the wall behind them and the medallion was sliding closed. The sound of grinding stone was almost deafening and brought about the sound of a deeper rumbling.

She looked at the roof of the cave where fine dust floated down to fall on their heads then looked at Dilton's alarmed face.

"We need to go now." 

"No shit sherlock." Cheryl scoffed from where she was clambering into the basket. "Your two losers need to get on this train before it leaves you behind."

There was no more time for words as they scrambled into the basket and signal for lift. As they rose, Betty could see the walls of the cave collapsing, burying the medallion and the small alcove it covered. An empty alcove now as she carefully wrapped the blade in the large over-shirt she'd had tied around her waist.

As Cheryl yelled into the walkie talkie for the crane operator to go faster, Dilton was silent as he watched her wrap the blade. Betty flushed uncomfortably, hugging the bundle to her chest.

"What? You said it yourself… we would never gotten another chance if we just left it there. At least this way we can study it more. I did it for the sceince. Who knows… it may just be the proof of aliens that the world has been waiting for Dilly? We couldn't just leave it there right?"

Dilton blinks and looks down into the crumbling cave for a long while, then looks back at her, his eyes dark and inscrutable.

"Sure" he nodded, turning away from her to stare back at the darkness they were leaving behind " …sure."


	4. Chapter 4

It was already dark when they stumbled into Pop's Diner, dusty and scraped. The last few hours had been a whirlwind of getting examined by medical personnel, cataloguing and packaging what they could from the site, showing a shocked professor that dagger, fending off an angry Mr. Lodge and an even angrier Cheryl.

Finally, blessedly, everything was packed up and shipped off to the society's offices and the volunteers had been released for the day. The Professor had been bundled off with the rest of the artifacts while Cheryl had zoomed off in her twin brother Jason's speedster, threats of litigation still ringing in the air. The construction crews had already snapped on the bright flood lights and were swarming the site like ants.

Fortunately for them all, Dilton had managed to pop the memory card out of the redhead's phone before she caught sight of it and snatched it from his hands with an angry hiss. He and Betty had shared a quick fist pump behind Cheryl's retreating back as he slipped the tiny card into his wallet.

Betty slapped a crumpled ten on the counter and blew the hair out of her face.

"Two chocolate milkshakes please Pop" she rasped, slumping unto one of the shiny red stools.

"Make mine Vanilla" Dilton moaned from where he had his head rested on his folded arms. A clump of earth tumbled out of his thick curls unto the lacquered counter top. 

Betty nodded wearily. "You heard the man."

Soon enough a concerned looking Pop placed the chilled glasses of heaven unto the counter and Betty moaned around her straw, cooled milk and sugar splashing across her tongue like nirvana. She clasped her scraped hands around the cold glass, her right hand still twitching involuntarily ever since she'd held that wicked blade in the dark of the cave. It seemed an eternity and a moment ago. Just thinking of it made her blood rush, bringing heat and colour to her face and neck.

She pressed the cold glass against her neck, closing her eyes at the wonderful chill. Beside her, Dilton was making noises that almost bordered on obscene as he attacked his own shake. She smirked around her straw, catching Pop's not so subtle looks as he cleaned the already shining counter.

"Ahem… Tough day at the site?" he tried to smile but it came across as a grimace.

"Man…" Dilton moaned before Betty could get a word out, "… you don't know the half."

The door behind them swung open with a bang, startling them all. A young ginger haired man with wide eyes stood, breathing heavily as if he'd run a great distance. His eyes scanned the room quickly before settling in on the dust covered teens. 

"Betty!" he rushed to her, grabbing her up into an embrace before she can even blink. His arms are solid and warm around her as his sweet breath ruffled her hair. "We just heard about the cave in. We've been looking for you everywhere. Are you all right?"

She sinks into the embrace like a homecoming, letting her head rest against his broad chest as her tired eyes fall closed. Her arms slip around his waist and clasp at the ratty Riverdale High sweatshirt he's wearing. His name falls from her lips like a prayer.

"Archie." 

It's Archie. He's here. He's like a furnace against her cheek. His steady heartbeat soothing the tension that had been whipped up in her since the cave. She feels a rush of pure affection as he tightens his hold on her, pushing out the cold that had been pressed like a stone behind her heart. Her eyes sting with tears and she buries her face into his chest.

"Archie." she says again, a full body shudder wracking her frame as she curls tighter into him.

"Hey there…" he whispers into the shell of her ear, "… it's okay. You're safe now. It's all over now. You got out of there. You're so brave today. My brave blue eyes. It's okay. "

He guides her to a corner booth where he uses thumb to wipe away a stray tear. Dilton follows, sliding in across from them. 

"When you say 'we'…?" He frowns at the remnants of his milkshake and signals the waitress for a refill.

Archie nods, looking over the other boy's shoulder at a group of teens coming in through the door. He points his chin at the dark haired beauty at the lead.

"Veronica found out while she was driving her dad around. By the time they got back to the site, you guys had been rescued and the site was packed up and gone. She called around looking for you but you didn't answer your phones. She then called us and we started looking. We finally got through to the professor who remembered you talking about milkshakes and bets so we came here."

By the time he'd finished talking, the others had joined them at the booth, sliding in to sit. It was a bit of a crush but it gave Betty time to compose herself a bit. Archie kept one arms around her, his other under the table, fingers intertwined with hers.

When she finally looked up, it was to concerned hazel eyes. Veronica seemed to be searching her face for something, her brows furrowed. As the others spoke around them, Dilton explaining with wild gestures and varying voice levels of their adventures of the day; the brunette mouthed the words 'you okay?'. Betty nodded, giving her best friend a small trembling smile in return.

Veronica reaches across the table and betty quickly raises her free hand up to grasp it, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Seemingly satisfied, the lodge heiress leans back and turns her attention to the yarn Dilton is spinning about their escapade into the harrowing depths.

Betty suppresses a smile, her eyes going around the table to the people sitting there. There's Jughead, Archie's best friend and well known lay-about. His whoopee cap sitting on his head rakishly tilted. The little buttons and pins on it would, on anyone else, look corny and childish; but Jughead made them look hipster and charming. Betty was never really sure if Jughead was really as much of a ne'er do well as he liked to portray or if he was secretly a genius and he just like messing with people's expectations of him. She suspected it was the latter.

Reggie was snug up against Veronica's back, no doubt trying to make Archie jealous, even now. A self proclaimed sexual tyrannosaur, he was the Tall Dark and Handsome boy that all the girls dreamed about… that is until he opened his mouth and let his inner douche bag out. Coming from the same kind of old money that Veronica did, he was often her 'plus one' at the more posh events, being each others convenient arm candy so that they could pursue their own choice of relationships privately. Veronica with Archie and Reggie with anything with a pulse and a pair of boobs. And even then some of his conquests could be called into question.

He and Archie had a different kind of rivalry that she had with Veronica. They could loosely be called friends, more like close acquaintances really; and Reggie had all of Veronica's elitist hang ups without the core of kindness and caring she possessed.

Moose and Midge were closer to Dilton than to her but she still considered them good friends and the way they both sat transfixed at Dilton's tale, she was glad that they had been part of the group that had been looking for them. Moose with his hulking blonde frame, so clean cut and earnest and gentle despite his size and Midge, short and curly haired and fiery tempered; they made an odd couple. 

But Betty had seen Midge at the library, patiently coaching her somewhat slow minded boyfriend in his schoolwork and she'd seen Moose slamming a guy's head into a locker for making lewd comments to Midge. They suited each other. Of course Midge had read Moose the riot act for treating her like a damsel in distress and not letting her handle the jerk herself. It had been a sight to see this 5' 1" girl hold the 6' 3" boy by his ear until he was almost bent in half and scold him in the school hallway. Betty would never forget it. 

Betty lets the conversation flow around her until she's nodding off unto Archie's shoulder. The boy tips her chin up and she blinks sleepily at him.

"I think that this one here needs some shut eye ASAP. Come on Blue eyes. Up and at 'em. About time I got you home."

She's half asleep as they all make their goodbyes and Archie helps her out to his old red jalopy. Working a summer job at the local mechanic's has helped him get the old junker of his in better working order but it was far, far away from tip top shape. They jangle and clink all the way to Betty's house and he walks her to the door, pulling her in for one of those amazing hugs he gives. 

She brushes a kiss against his cheek and he ducks back down for another. This one on the mouth and he lingers there, delving deeper as she parts her lips with a sigh. By the time they pull apart she's weak kneed and dizzy and gives him a sleepy smile. He smiles in return and kisses her forehead.

"I'm so happy you're okay." he murmurs against her hair.

She throws her arms around his neck and hugs him tight. 

"it'll take more than a little cave in to take me out." 

Over his shoulder she looks up at the star filled night sky, it is beautiful and so romantic and she loves these special moments with Archie. She sees a shooting star and grins, getting ready to make a wish. Before she can make it though something strikes her as a bit odd and the grin slowly falls off her face.

There's something not quite right about that star. She can't quite put her finger on it but the chill of the cave blossoms inside of her once more and she shivers, pulling away from Archie to rub at her arms. He frowns at her and follows her gaze up to the night sky but the shooting star is already long gone.

"You okay?" he asked, rubbing her arms as she shivered again. "You should go inside, where's its warm."

She nodded absently and stepped into the warmth of the house, turning back to smile at the ginger haired boy one more time. She gave him a small wave as she watched him amble to his car and get in. Then, with one last fearful look at the night sky, she slowly eased the front door closed. And checked the locks. Twice.


	5. Chapter 5

She awakes from a dead sleep with a sharp inhale, blinking her eyes rapidly against the dawning light. The pillow is hot and creased against her face and her jaw cracks with a deep yawn. She grabs her phone off the bedside table and sees 15 texts messages from Dilton starting at one am and getting more intense and less comprehensible with each message. The last one was at 4:46am and simply said SOCIETY. BRING BREAKFAST. COFFEE. The only other text was from Archie, wishing her sweet dreams.

She smiled and flopped back unto the bed, hugging the phone to her chest. The smile quickly turns into a moan and she rolls to her side, curling up into a fetal position. Her whole body ached from yesterday's fall. She spied two pain tablets and a glass of water on her bedside table and vowed to kiss both her parents for being so thoughtful.

By the time she'd showered and dressed and made it downstairs, her mother had already left for her shift as a nurse at the hospital. Her father was draining the rest of his coffee and frowning at the sports section of the paper when Betty kissed on the cheek on her way out the door.

Forgoing her usual walk to the society's offices, she unhooks her bicycle from the garage and pedals carefully to the nearest coffee shop. Armed with two hot coffees and some delicious smelling pastries in a stiff white bag, she turns toward her final destination. The construction site is a buzz with activity and noise as she rides by, stopping to stare as a back hoe pushes rocks and other debris into the sink hole that was once the cave. 

The memories from yesterday still live in the back of her mind, vivid and cold as a chill travels up her spine and steals the breath from her lungs. Her visions greys a bit and only a warm hand on her shoulder keeps her from lilting. She twists violently at the touch.

Moose jumps back quickly, hands in the surrender position. His eyes are wide and filled with concern. Betty flushes.

"Sorry. You startled me Moose."

He shrugs it off, "Are you okay? I called your name a couple of times."

Betty sets the bike kickstand down and shakes her head ruefully. "Sorry. I was just thinking about something."

The large blond nods sagely. "Thinking is hard. It hurts when I do it too much so I try to do it only when it's really important. Midge and Dilton usually do the heavy thinking."

Betty smiles and nods with him. "I could use someone to do my thinking for me today. Your lucky to have them Moose. Maybe I can get Dilly to be my heavy thinker today. You don't mind if I borrow him for a while do you?"

"Nah." Mosse grins. "Dill Pickle has brains enough for all of us. I can stick with Midge today…"

The grin fades from his face as he looks around, " … if I can find her that is."

"What do you mean?"

"We were supposed to meet for a run this morning.." he bites his lips, eyes still searching the surrounding area, " … I'm training for the big exhibition game next month. She always runs with me… every morning. But this morning I waited and she never came. She'd not answering her phone and her mom says that her bed's made, she not home."

"When was the last time you saw her?" Betty frowns.

"Last night. After the diner I dropped her off at the path near her home. Her kids brothers were playing at the small park and she stayed to round them up."

He points over to a small playground on the other side of the site. She can just see the bright colours of the plastic slide and jungle jim, down a small grassy slope from some the condos where Midge and her family lived.

She placed and hand on Moose's arm and gave him a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure she'll turn up. Don't worry about it. Tell you what, I'll keep an eye out for her too. Tell that you're looking for her okay?"

"Thanks Betty." he smiled wide and jogged off. 

She watched his large form disappear around a corner and turned back to the construction site with a thoughtful frown. Midge was always a practical girl, impulsive yes but not one to disappear without some kind of notice. Betty had wanted to reassure Moose that Midge would turn up around the corner with breakfast for them both and a funny story about how her phone got broken but the words had felt like ash in her mouth.

She knew that somehow that wasn't the case. The tightened her hands around the handlebars and kicked up the kickstand, pushing the bike as a fast clip away from the construction site. Gritting her teeth, she pedaled faster, her thighs aching from the strain. The words 'don't turn around, don't turn around' spun like a mantra in her head, never ceasing until she pulled up at the front door of the society's offices.

The archaeological society's tiny offices are empty at this time of day, even the professor hasn't come in yet. Betty shoulders the door open, leaning her bike against the wall just inside the doorway. Dilton is hunkered down behind the old relic of a PC that the had been donated to the society at its inception. His newer Laptop was located next to it and he switched between them both as he chewed nervously on a pencil. Several books and papers lay in scattered piles on every horizontal surface.

Printouts of the carvings from the cave were tacked to a cork board nearby, hand written notes, post its and rudimentary attempts at translations pinned between them. At the centre of the chaos is a large and detailed picture of the dagger. 

Betty quickly averted her eyes from the dagger, putting the pastry bag and the two coffees on the one patch of bare table in the area. It took a few minutes for the smell of coffee to snag the dark haired boy's attention and she smiled fondly as he fumbled at the cup, gulping down half the hot liquid before awareness came into his eyes. He looked down at his half empty cup with a small frown, glanced at the other coffee cup and then up at Betty.

"There's both for you." she chuckled.

He quickly drained the first cup with a moan, quickly digging into the white pastry bag. 

"You are a Goddess among men, Cooper, truly." he mumbled around a mouth full of jam tart.

She pulled up a chair beside him and gestured at the scattered paperwork. 

"Please tell me you haven't been here all night?"

He hastily wiped a bit of jam from the corner of his mouth, smearing it across his cheek as he motioned at the screen. Fingers flashed across the keyboard as he opened file after file, the strange symbols from the site popping up in each picture.

"Yeah. No." he swallowed the last bite of pastry, dusting crumbs unto his t-shirt and cargo pants. "I mean I went home and crashed for like two hours then came here. I just couldn't stop thinking about this stuff. I mean come on… ALIENS!"

"Dilly…" Betty frowned but the boy kept talking as he hadn't heard.

"None of us had ever seen anything like this before but when you start to look, really look, this stuff has been around forever. These same symbols appear throughout history, in cultures that have nothing to do with each other … at all. From the Ancient Egyptians, to the Khmer Empire, and the Aztecs. There's even signs on Bouvetøya Island, that's an island off of Antarctica. A Weyland-Yutani expedition found them back in 2004."

"Dilly" she said a little louder but yet still he went on.

"There's not a lot online though… I had to come here because we have access to the University's servers and the national and a few of the exclusive international databases. Those … now those are just teeming with data. There are …"

Betty listened intently as Dilton rambled about the obscure historical facts he'd cobbled together during his all-nighter. It didn't make the most sense to her and she had the feeling that Dilton may have been seeing connections where there were none due to his lack of sleep. While she herself was fascinated with the possibilities, she stopped just short of crossing the line into actual aliens… as in 'we come in peace' from outer space ALIENS. 

Soon enough, other volunteers start filtering in and Professor DeMarco bustles in all smiles and words of gratitude and praise for everyone who worked on the site. They get to work cataloguing and indexing the artifacts and discussing future exhibitions. It's close to mid afternoon when the sound of a throat being cleared brings Betty's head up.

"Professor?"

DeMarco beamed. "Ah yes Betty, could I see you in my office for a moment?

He ushered her into the small cramped office, taking a seat in his squeaky office chair with a sigh. Betty paused at the door, her smile faltering because on the desk, neatly displayed on a spread cloth; lay the dagger from the cave. Her hand tightened on the door handle, not wanting to enclose herself in a space with the blade. Slowly she closed the door and slipped into the seat opposite the professor.

"I wanted to thank you" he said, pulling the lighted magnifying glass back into to position between himself and the blade. Notebooks and pages filled with detailed sketches lay on either side of him and he flipped through them seemingly at random, scratching a note here and there.

Swallowing hard against the cold unease of having the dagger up close, Betty tipped her head to the side.

"Thank me Sir?"

"Dilton told me about your actions in the cave" he indicated to the dagger. "while I don't usually condone taking an artifact out if it's environment without proper study… if it hadn't been for you quick thinking, we would not have had the item to study at all. "

He shakes his head in exasperation. "That Lodge fellow had been extremely disagreeable to any talk about anything that would disturb his precious bottom line. He would have never agreed to further study. So… thank you. With this artifact and Dilton's quick thinking with the mobile phone video, we have at least a rudimentary idea of what the cave may have held and what secrets it had been keeping for so long."

It was hard not to get caught up in the older man's enthusiasm and Betty found herself smiling back at him even as the dagger seemed to leech the warmth from the room.

"It was a knee jerk reaction really." she shrugged, "We all did what we could. Even Cheryl and her hundred bucks reference helped in the end."

"Nevertheless…thank you. We certainly have a lot to go on now because of you three. It was all very Indiana Jones of you. Everyone is all so very excited. The University board has been making happy noises. These artifacts could very well change the history of Riverdale as we know it. It may even affect the our view of the world beyond ours."

Betty grinned. "Have you joined Dilton in his quest to find aliens Professor? A man of science like yourself? Surely not."

The professor ahem'd and drew himself upright in the chair. "See here now young lady…" he scoffed in his most haughty voice, smiling as Betty collapsed into giggles. "I may not be on the lookout for little green men but even I can see that this exquisite artifact was mostly likely as not brought about by the skills of ordinary ancient man. Even evidence of a higher level of thinking, of learning, of manufacture in ancient man could turn known history upon its head. 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. '"

Betty nodded approval. "Nice Hamlet Sir… sweet."

He sends her on her way with a chuckle and orders to pry Dilton from his chair and get him some food and sunlight, maybe even a shower; and she is glad to be out of the office. Any longer she would have given in to temptation and grabbed at the dagger. To feel the weight of it in her hand, to feel the cold burn, that heady feeling of raw dark desire and the absolute knowledge that whatever she wanted, she could … and would take for herself.

She shook the shadows from her mind and stepped into the main room, making a beeline for Dilton's cluttered cubby. It took some coaxing and some threatening to get him out of the chair and she ended up having to push him out, blinking, into the afternoon sun. threading an arm through his, she walked/dragged him the few blocks to Pop's and situated him in a booth.

The Diner was fairly deserted, Pop's fretful grumbling could be heard from the short order kitchenette. 

"I wonder what's up with him?" she mused to Dilton as she scanned the menu. Usually she would just get a burger with a side salad at Pop's but today she felt ravenous. Even the short walk from the society had been able to warm her enough from being that close to the dagger. 

She wondered absently if anyone else seemed to feel what she did whenever she was near it. The professor seemed able to study it closely for hours without a problem. Dilton had no problem scanning the video of the their time in the cave frame by frame as he analyzed every minute detail. Was it just her that felt the cold malice, the thick dark that clung to your very flesh as you pulled away. Where did that leave her? Was she losing her mind? Did she hit her head in the cave and damaged her brain? 

She sighed and looked around for the waitress. There was one harried looking girl who was dealing with a family of six at the other end of the diner but she wasn't even looking in their direction. Dilton had fallen asleep on the table, his head pillowed on his arms. She smiled fondly and tweaked one of his dark curls. She'd order his favourite and have it ready to go for when he woke up.

She looked around again. No waitress in sight. What the heck was going on around here?

"Fry cook never turned up today." a low voice mumbled around a mouthful of food as a lean form slipped into the booth next to her. Two plates, loaded with burgers and fries, thumped down on the formica table, startling Dilton into wakefulness. He blinked sleepily before slumping back unto his arms.

"Hey Jughead" she smiles, stealing a fry from one of his over flowing plate. He gives her the side eye and she bats her eyes at him with a pout. "...gimme a break dude, I'm starving. Surely you're not going to eat all of that are you?"

"Watch me… dude." he grumbled, signaling to the lone waitress. She hustles up to the table and betty quickly orders. Full fajita platter for her and a chicken pot pie packed to go for the still sleeping Dliton. 

The woman bustles off and Betty glances over her shoulder to where Pop is cooking up a storm in the small kitchen. Mumbling under his breath almost constantly and wiping sweat from his face with a small white towel, Pop had a distinct pinched look on hi face Betty had only ever seen the one time when a rowdy football team, high off a victory, had accidentally broke the front glass window of the diner.

"He looks…. Angry." she muses.

Jughead chuckled, "The other waitress, Pamela called in sick and the Shorty just never called in at all. Left Pop high and dry to cover the kitchen and counter while Shelly over there covers the tables. He's passed angry a long time ago… he's reaching volcanic proportions. Any minute now he's gonna lose it."

Betty takes on more glance back. "I hope I can get my fajitas before he does. I'm frikkin' starving."

"I think he's worried." 

Betty props her chin on her fist and regards the boy beside her. "What make you think that?"

"Shorty never misses work. He's a former marine and he may be old but he's as tough as nails. He once had his appendix out one day and at work the next morning. I saw him get splashed with hot oil once… I mean boiling. He just ripped off his shirt and put on a clean one and got back to work. Never said a word, not even a peep."

She frowns "Okay, what does that have to do with anything??"

The lean boy slumped further in his seat. "A man like Shorty wouldn't just stay home with no word, not even a call?"

The waitress is back with their food and Betty's stomach growls loudly, making the waitress chuckle and Betty colour sheepishly. Before she digs in though, she realizes that Jughead has stopped eating altogether, a far away look on his face.

She reaches up and tucks one of his long locks of hair behind his ear. "You're worried too aren't you?"

He twists away a little and shrugs, stuffing his mouth with a hand full of fries. She pats him on the shoulder and digs into her food. God, she's starving. Pop's is not a bad cook, not as good as Shorty though but she's hungry enough to make the mater moot.

She watches Jughead out of the corner of her eye as she chews, concerned. Maybe she didn't know Shorty to well but Jughead was ALWAYS at the diner. His love of food would have surely had him making friends with the man who cooked it. They may even have been good friends. 

"Hey. I'm sure he'll turn up. Don't worry about it. " she said softly,

She frowned a little as she recalled saying those very words to a worried Moose just this morning when he couldn't find Midge. Another person who had also vanished today, leaving no message or clue where they were. 

That familiar chill crackled like a current up her spine.

She swallowed hard, concentrating on eating, getting the food in and chewing it. But the taste was gone and it felt like lead in her belly. She tossed the last bit unto the plate with a huff and slurped from her large coke. 

Calm down Cooper, she told herself. Don't go looking for connections where there are none. It's just two people, to random people who maybe needed some time to themselves or had a family emergency. Heck, Midge could be with Moose right now for all she knew. She just needed to calm whatever storm that was brewing her chest.

Besides, she sighed internally, two is a coincidence… three makes a pattern. There's nothing to be concerned about.

The strings of "Devil Went Down to Georgia" started up as Jughead's phone shuddered its way across the table. Using his little finger, he answered and put it on speaker.

"Welcome to Jones Mortuary and crematorium…."

Betty grinned and joined in "you ghost 'em we roast 'em…"

"...You kill 'em we chill 'em..."

"...you stab 'em we slab 'em…"

"… Some go to heaven, some go to heellll- o" they say in unison and laugh.

"Jug? Betty?" Archie's voice is tinny over speaker phone. "What's going on? Where are you two?"

"We're at Pops dude, getting some grub. " 

"Oh. Together?" Archie sounds surprised. Betty leans in closer to the phone.

"Yeah together! We are capable of hanging out with each other without YOU here y'know."

"Sorry" Archie chuckles ruefully. "I apologize. I've just been a little distracted it all."

"By Veronica's new bikini down at the lake, I bet" Jughead teases, wincing as Betty punched him in the arm.

"No… uh… we're not at the Lake house yet. Veronica's hopping mad. We're all still at the mansion."

"Still?" Betty was surprised. They were supposed to be off hours ago. "What's wrong?"

"We don't have a second car we need. Reggie never showed. We can't find him anywhere. Have you guys seen him around?"

Betty's fists clench at her clothes at the words.

No.

No way.

Cold fear bloomed in her chest.

Midge. Shorty and now Reggie.

Three people … vanished without word. There could be no more explaining it away to coincidence.

No…

… three makes a pattern.


	6. Chapter 6

[](http://s284.photobucket.com/user/Ziela_Hime/media/strstw-banner-2_zpslxtzcqno.jpg.html)

Taking her leave from Jughead at the diner, she sees Dilton off home, after extracting a sleepy promise that he sleep for at least four hours before doing any more research. The sun is high in the afternoon sky yet she still feels a chill, pulling her collar up over her jaw as she made her way back to the society's offices.

The next couple of hours are spent doing the rest of the cataloguing and watching her phone carefully for texts from Archie. Eventually, the rest of the volunteers bid thier good byes and head out, leaving only Betty and the Professor at work. She checks her phone for messages for the umpteenth time and gives a sigh of frustration when she sees none.

The fading light of late afternoon is shining through the windows, making the shadows stretch and crawl, when she finally packs away the last stone. Grabbing the clip board off the storage room door, she makes the final entry with a flourish and full body stretch. Stifling a yawn, she shuffles out of the back storage room and down the long corridor to the front office, stopping suddenly when a loud crash echoes through the hallway. 

A rush of cold surges through her, followed by an irrational sense of terror. She can't explain why she's shaking, why her feet seemed stuck to the spot. She wants to call out for the professor but she can't seem to get her voice to work. There is a softer bang and the flutter of paper, as if a large book has fallen and she tries to convince herself that maybe the professor knocked something off his desk by mistake.

The shadows of the corridor seem to reach for her as she forces her feet to shuffle forward, her heart rattling in her chest. 

"Professor" she whispers upon reaching the door to his office. Her hand his shaking as she reaches for the door knob, her breath coming in gasps. "Professor?"

The knob is ice cold and she whimpers and snatches her hand away, squeezing her eyes shut as they begin to sting. Her breath seems so loud in the quiet of the hallway and it takes her a few seconds to gather the courage to reach for the door again.

The doors swings open with a soft creaking sound to reveal an empty office. Betty frowned, her eyes darting to and fro as she takes in the scene. It's not any messier than it was this morning. The professor's chair is rolled away from the desk, stopping against the wall. There are a few books on the ground, papers scattered haphazardly. The one window in the office is opened wide, the blind broken and hanging from one string. 

She tiptoes her way across to the window but there is nothing that can be seen from outside except an empty parking lot and a path leading to the woods. She ducks her head back in, frowning as she slid the window closed. Where was the professor? Would he have left without checking in and telling her goodbye? Maybe he hadn't realized she was still here, working at the back of the storage area.

But then again, what about the loud noise? She bit her lip and looked at the window. Maybe the wind knocked the books down. Yes, that sounded more likely. No need to be worried. She nodded to herself with a rueful chuckle. Here she was, scared over a little breeze. She turned to the doorway, the tension slowly easing from her body when her eyes ran over the professor's desk.

She whimpered as her blood seemed to freeze in her veins, her hands fisting tightly enough to leave fingernail marks in her palm. The desk… it was empty. Oh, it still had the random scattered books and papers, the professors lighted magnifying glass was bent askew. The light blue cloth that had been spread upon the table was still there. The only thing that was not there was the dagger. 

"Oh God" she breathed, her eyes darting around the room once more. The professor's satchel was still there, hung across the back of his chair like always, his glasses were set at the side of the cloth. She peeked under the desk, yes, his shoes were still there. He had a tendency to slip them off during the day. 

Then, she spotted it, sitting on one of the shelves behind the desk, sat the professor's tea cup, still filled with tea. As she stood frozen, a swirl of steam rose from the still hot liquid. Betty slapped her hands over her mouth to stop the wail that threatened to spill out. 

Oh God. 

A bang echoes through the building, the sound of the garbage cans near the back door rolling along the concrete pavement. She doesn't hesitate another second, bursting from the office at a dead run, she grabs her bag off Dilton's chair and slams her way out of the building and into the street. She leaves the bicycle behind because to stop and get it would be to let the unknown terror get her. 

She's two blocks away before she slows down, bracing her hands against her knees, panting for breath. Her hearts feels like it wants to explode and she presses an hand against her aching chest, trying to calm her breathing. She staggered to the curb and dropped to sit, dropping her chin against her chest.

Frustrated tears stung her eyes and she wiped them away angrily. Dammit. What the heck just happened? Tension eased from her with a full body shudder. She pulls out her phone, contemplating calling Archie. She just wanted to hear his voice but what could she tell him. That she was jumping at shadows? At figments of her over active imagination? Archie was always so calm, so practical but she just couldn't take that kind of talk from him right now. 

Veronica wouldn't understand and Dilton should still be sleeping. She didn't want to disturb anyone else with these crazy ideas. 

A heavy diesel engine revs nearby and a tow truck rumbles to a stop in front of her. A tall curly haired woman with a few grey streaks and a ruddy complexion sticks her head out of the window with a smile. 

"Hey Blondie. Howzit going? 

Betty scrambles to her feet with a weak smile. "Ok I guess. How's it hanging with you Jez?"

Jezebel Mullone was a friend of Betty's father and served with him in the army back in their hayday. Sometimes she and a couple others would come over to the house and throw some steaks on the grill and drink beer, trading old stories on their time in the Explosive Ordinance Disposal squad. 

Betty would sit at her father's knees and listen to the wild and increasingly uncensored stories slung around the back yard. By the time she was twelve years old, Betty knew how to make a self-igniting molotov cocktail, where to place explosives in order to bring a building down on itself and even how to cobble together a rudimentary detonator from an alarm clock or cell phone.

"Just picked up this baby down at lover's lane." Jez thumbed toward the sleek silver car she had hooked up to the truck. "… Been there since last night I reckon. Still damp from lasts night's rain. Owner'll probably kick themselves silly, leaving the roof down like that." 

Betty glanced back at the car's plates and gasped. "That's Reggie's car."

"Friend of yours?"

Betty nodded, "That's his baby. There was no way he would abandon it, not in a place like lover's lane. He'd go ballistic if anything happened to it."

Jez shrugged. "Well, it'll be enough at the impound. He can come and pick it up there."

The shrill notes of a phone ringing has them both staring at the car. With a nod from Jez, Betty leans in and fishes out a smart phone where it had slid under the front seat. The word 'Ronniekins' flashed on the screen and she swiped her finger across to answer it.

Veronica's voice was irate and husky as she hissed "Mantle you asshole! Where the hell have you been? We've been waiting for you for hours now while you're probably out somewhere getting your dick wet. When I get my hands on you…"

"Veronica!" Betty shouted, cutting off the tirade. 

"Betty?" Veronica yelped, "What are you doing answering Reggie's phone? Are you with him right now? Where the hell are you guys? I've been calling for hours. What's going on?"

"Veronica." Betty soothed. "… I got Reggie's phone from his car. It's being towed from Lover's lane. Ronnie…. They thinks it's been there since last night. He… he left his phone behind."

Her disbelief was obvious. "He left his precious car at that skank hole overnight? With his phone in it? I can't believe that Reggie would do that. 

It must have been that skank Marceline. He's been sniffing around her for weeks now and she finally dropped him a bone last night. If it's one thing that would make him leave his car behind is a chance at the grade A poon tang. They must be shacked up somewhere… all fucked out. God I am just so mad at him right now."

Betty shrugged, then realized that Veronica couldn't see her so she made a noise of agreement.

"At least his baby is getting towed."

"Serves the bastard right." the brunette harrumphed. "I have to go B, talk to you later ok."

"Ok. Bye" Betty told the dial tone awkwardly, Veronica having already hung up. 

She shared a commiserate look with Jez and tried to hand her back Reggie's phone. The woman waved her off.

"Better keep it and give it to your friend when you see him. Who knows what might happen to with those ruffians down at the Impound. Fancy gadgets like that tend to 'get misplaced'. See you around kid."

Betty waved as the tow truck rumbled away and turned toward home. She'd have to walk it because there was no way she was going back to the society for her bike, even if she was feeling a little silly for running pell-mell out of there earlier. A few minutes of brisk walking had her passing the construction site, the bright flood lights already switched on as twilight broached.

Her walking slowed as she watched the giant cement trucks, their large bellies churning away as workers guided the long hoses burping cement over the rebar foundation frames. The site was noisy and busy as usual and she ambled slowly along, shoving her hands into the pockets of her light jacket. 

Her hand brushed against Reggie's phone and she desperately hoped that he was just shacked up in some hotel room somewhere with 'that skank Marceline'; or that Midge had turned up soon after Betty and Moose had parted ways; and that Shorty was sleeping off a hangover or something. Maybe the professor had gone to he bathroom in his socked feet, fully intending to shuffle back and enjoy his cup of hot tea.

And maybe he took the dagger with him. 

To the bathroom.

And maybe she'd win the lottery this week.

Betty sighed gustily, kicking a small rock away with a grunt.

"Bad Day?"

Betty would forever deny the high squeal that escaped her lips at the words. She jumped and spun, bringing her hands up to defend herself from… well from what? She didn't really know. She dropped her hands at her sides in relief when she recognized the speaker.

"Sabrina." she chuckled a little hysterically, "… you scared me."

The dark skinned girl with shocking white blonde hair done up in intricate braids raised an eyebrow.

"Did I now?... That's odd…" she mused, "… It seemed to me that you were scared before I even said anything."

Even though Betty had known Sabrina Spellman since middle school, she was always mystified by the other girl. With her eccentric aunts and smarter than average cat, play dates at the Spellman house were always an adventure. 

With her rich dark skin and platinum locks, she was a stunner in the looks department. Half the boys in school vied continuously for her attention but the girl paid them no mind until one day Harvey Kinkle had tripped his way into her life and they'd been a couple since then.

Even now Sabrina had that look in her eye, the one that told the tale of lives lived and centuries past. The one that seemed to look through the very heart of a person. She was always a bit weirder than usual when she got like that.

"Me?… Scared?... Why would I be scared? What's there to be scared of?" Betty babbled nervously.

"Why don't you tell me Betty…" Sabrina titled her head to one side, "… what IS there to be scared of?"

"I… I… I mean… I …" Betty stammered, taking a step back. "… I don't know."

"Good." Sabrina gave a reassuring smile.

"How's that good?" Betty demanded, " I don't even know what it is !"

"But you have at least admitted that there is an IT. That's the first step."

"To what?"

Sabrina looked away, staring at the construction site with a small frown.

"To getting to the bottom of whatever the heck is going on around here. You have my number. Call me if you need me okay? See you around Cooper." 

Betty could only gape as the other girl sauntered away. Holy Shit. What the frikkin frack was that? She runs her hands through her hair with a moan. What was her life? She shook her hair out and changed direction, heading for the Diner. If she was going to try to wrap her head around whatever the heck that was, she needed pie.

The diner is mostly empty except for one booth where her friends are sitting, looking morose.

"Hey guys. What's up?" she slides into the space Archie makes for her. 

Veronica is on his other side, staring out the window in a huff. A frown mars the reflection of her face in the glass. Jughead and Moose sit in the seat opposite, Moose's shoulders slumped in dejection as he absentmindedly rips napkins apart. Archie places an arm over her shoulder and she snuggles up to him.

"The trip to the lake is off. With Reggie skipping off and no word from Midge, it just didn't seem right."

She looks over at the large blond, reaching over to squeeze his hand. "No word at all?"

He shakes his head and slumps lower. She trades worrying looks with Jughead and Archie. She tells them about Jez and the towing of Reggie's car but not about the professor or the strange conversation with Sabrina and soon enough they are all slumped in silence. Ever the optimist, Archie shrugs, 

"Hey, after all of this is over and we find the others, maybe one day we can all sit and laugh about this."

Betty snuggles in tighter and kisses just under his jaw. She can see Veronica's jaw working angrily in her reflection, surely gearing up to dole out a proper tongue lashing. Before she can make a sound though, a loud thump rattles the glass window and has them all jumping. 

Veronica lets out a high pitched shriek and scoots back against Archie, nearly pushing Betty off the edge of the cushioned bench. Jughead's eyes bulge wide and he kicks away from the window, succeeding in pushing the much larger Moose to the ground in surprise.

Betty braces herself against Archie's sudden weight and looks up to see what frightened everyone so much. What she sees makes her heart leap in her throat and cold terror grips her behind her rib cage and squeezes.

Pressed up against the window stands Cheryl Blossom, covered in blood and screaming bloody murder. Her clothes are half ripped away and she's barefoot, her palms banging at the window, leaving smears of blood against the glass as she sobbed. Small cuts and scratches litter her skin but there's not enough of them to be the source of that much blood.

Archie and Moose are the first to recover and they rush to the door just as Pop hurries out from behind the counter. 

"What the actual fuck?" Jughead mutters softly, shaking his head in disbelief as the others guide a hysterical Cheryl inside. He looks at Betty solemnly. "This isn't gonna be anything good is it?"

Betty hugs herself and shivers against the bitter cold as they try to coax the girl to drink some water, Moose's letterman jacket over her shoulders to keep her warm and protect her modesty.

"No…" her voice breaks on the word, "… probably not."


	7. Chapter 7

What few other diners there were have gone by the time they calm Cheryl down enough to talk. Pop has flipped the closed sign and has brought a damp towel and his old first aid kit from behind the counter. Veronica was cleaning the blood and tear tracks off of Cheryl's face and Archie was cleaning and bandaging the cuts and scrapes on her arms and legs. Moose was standing sentry at the door, gazing out sternly at the empty darkness. 

Pop was making a fresh batch of hot cocoa, saying that coffee was too much of a stimulant right now when they needed things calm. Jughead was perched on a red bar stool, his shaking leg the only outward sign of the anxiousness he must be feeling. Betty slid into a nearby chair, staring at Veronica and Archie as they tended to the traumatized red head.

She knew that she should get up and help. She was Betty Cooper, the kind and sweet girl with a heart of gold. In other circumstances she would be the first to help, to care; but she couldn't seem to bring herself to step closer to the blood soaked girl. She sat mute, glued to the seat. Unable to make a sound as her mind raced.

"Cheryl?" Archie coaxed, accepting the cup of cocoa from Pop and placing it on the table next to the shivering girl. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"Who did this to you honey?" Veronica gently wiped away a stray tear. "You can tell us. It's okay"

"I… it… my brother…" the usually haughty girl whimpered, "… Jason…. Jay… he ….. No no no no… Jason."

Cheryl began crying again, rocking back and forth as she keened. Betty closed her eyes against the sight. She could not bear to look anymore. 

"He's dead!" Cheryl wailed as Veronica wrapped her arms around her. "...it killed him."

Jughead let out his breath with a heavy whoosh, grabbing his hat off his head with a distressed look on his face. He hopped off the stool, stuffing the hat in his pocket, and slumped into the seat next to Betty. She took his hand and squeezed it. 

"I'll go call the police" Pop shook his head, ducking back through the kitchen to his office.

"Jason is dead? Cheryl…. Can you tell us what happened?" Archie asked patiently.

"Do you know who killed him?" Veronica wasn't as patient. Archie gave her a look and she ducked her head, shrugging. 

"We were… driving back up from the lake. Didn't make sense staying if you guys weren't there to needle. Jason took a short cut through the woods. We got a flat tyre. No bars on either phone so we decided to walk. … then…. then…."

Betty's phone rang out in the silence, startling them all. They all stared as she scrambled to pull the phone from her pocket. It was Dilton. She swiped to answer.

"Dilton?" 

"Oh My God Betty where are you? You won't believe it? You need to get to my house like right now ok?"

She shrugged sheepishly at the others, mouthing Dilton's name to them. Veronica was giving her that "Really?" look and even Archie raised an questioning eyebrow. She slipped out of the chair, hissing into the phone as Cheryl started talking once again.

"Now's not the time Dilton… something's happened…."

"...there was something in the woods… something big…"

"After I got some sleep, thanks for that by the way, I got a reply from me email to Alexa Woods, you know, the only survivor of the Weyland Yutani Expedition to Bouvetøya island. Betty you wont believe what she had to say…"

"Now's really not the time Dilly…"

"It came out of the woods… we started to run…" 

"Anyway… she wrote a book about it but nobody believed her and at first she wouldn't even take my call but she recognized the symbols and called me… She. Called. Me. Anyway she called them the Yautja and that they were big mean warrior class motherfuckers with advanced technology and some kind of cloaking technology that makes them invisible…"

"…. It just appeared out of nowhere… just melted out of thins air… it was so big and so ugly. It had this metal face thing on. .. and a long blade on a stick that just snapped out longer … it was wicked sharp. It cut right through the tree behind us…. I could believe what I was seeing…."

"Dill…"

"Anyway, apparently they've been here a bunch of times and do these 'hunts' where they hunt … guess what… humans that's what! This is unreal…."

"… the blade hit Jason and he fell. Next I know the thing, its dragging him away and he's screaming. I tried to run after him but it was so fast. He just screamed and screamed until he just… stopped. He stopped screaming. When I finally found him… he was… it had… "

"… apparently they like to take trophies from their kills. Sometimes they take small stuff like jewelry or dog tags in shit. Sometimes though they take… Jesus Christ… sometime they take the skin of their prey. How fucked up is that right?"

"… Jason he… he was hanging upside down from a tree and … his … it took his skin. Oh my god, oh my god… it took his skin!" 

"Jesus." Betty breathed.

"Ah-greed." Dilton chuckled humorlessly. ".. Not exactly how I would want to make first contact."

"No Dilton. Cheryl's brother is dead. Something killed him out in the woods. Something big and mean and can turn invisible and takes the skins of its kill? Ring a bell much?"

"No fucking way!"

"Yes fucking way."

"...there were others…"

"Others?" Archie's voice was shaky with utter horror. Betty froze, her eyes glues to Cheryl's distraught face.

" Other bodies… a woman and three men I think… that I could see… there may have been more."

Betty hissed " The missing people. Reggie. Shorty. The Professor…"

"What? The professor?" Dilton yells but Betty pays him no attention. 

Her eyes are on Moose who seems to be thinking very hard. After a few seconds Moose's face goes blank and he collapses into a nearby chair like a puppet with its strings cut. Jughead curses under his breath and rubs a weary hand down his face.

"Midge. Godammit."

"Wait… what about Midge?" Dilton demands, "… What the fuck happened while I was a sleep? "

Betty sinks into a nearby chair. " A whole helluva lot Dillyweed."

She clears her throat. "I think we need to get over to Dilton's. There's some stuff that you need to hear."

"We can't just leave" Veronica frowns, " Are you crazy B? Didn't you just hear the part about some psycho out there in the woods killing and skinning people. Besides, Pop already called the police."

Archie stands, looking around the deserted parking lot through the window, 

"Yeah about that, shouldn't they be here already?"

They all turn to look into the small kitchen. It's dark and quiet and the hairs on the back of Betty's neck raise.

"I'll go check on him" Jughead shrugs, heading behind the counter.

A coldness rises in Betty's throat. "No don't! Don't go back there." 

They all turn to look at her. She flushes.

"...just don't ." 

The silence lasts a heart beat. Two… then.

A loud roar echoes through the diner and something flies from the darkened kitchen through the service window to land on one of the formica tables with a wet thump. It's Pop… or what left of him, bloody and raw and squelching, his eyeballs lolling crazily in his head. Betty screams and time seems to slow. The others jump away, screaming as they scramble away from the horrible mess. She turns to the kitchen and sees a nightmare turned flesh through the small service window.

It's big, at least seven feet tall and ugly, oh so ugly as it takes off the metal mask, revealing it's terrifying face. Small beady eyes protected by a large ridged forehead, topped by some kind of dreadlocks. Mandibles crowned with wicked sharp teeth expand from its mouth, revealing even more jagged teeth. It shakes it's head, whipping the locks as it roars again.

Veronica is the first to the door, already scrambling to flip the lock and they spill unto the street in a tangle of limbs. The monster, as it was nothing if not monstrous, crashed through the drywall into the Diner proper and Archie cursed as he fumbled for his keys.

"Are you kidding me?" Veronica screamed. "What are you doing? We need to run away."

"You think we can outrun that thing?" He yelled right back. "We'll never make it." 

"Oh shut the fuck up and hurry" Jughead groaned, " it's coming." 

"Shit" Archie's key breaks in the lock and they all groan.

"You won't make it." Moose said flatly. 

Betty turned to him with concern. These were his first words since he learned that Midge was most likely dead. He turned to her and smiled. 

"Hey Betty. Take care of Dilton for me ok?"

"What? Moose?" she cried as the monster broke through the plate glass window and stepped out into the street.

"What? Moose? What's going on?" Dilton's tinny voice screams from the phone in her hand.

Then, with a serene smile and a flex of his muscles, the large boy is across the parking lot and is hitting the monster with a running tackle. Betty screams his name as they both disappear into the now completely dark diner. Arms grab her and she is dragged away, stumbling out of the parking lot. A tight hold on her arms the only thing keeping her upright as she runs, eye blurry from her tears.

They break to catch their breath a couple of blocks away and Betty leans wearily against a lamp post. Veronica is crying in Archie's arms. Cheryl is hugging herself and trembling, silent tears running down her face. Jughead is pacing in a circle, running his hands through his hair over and over and muttering curses under his breath.

'We need to get to Dilton's" Betty glances back in the direction they just came in. "That won't hold it for long."

Veronica sneers "THAT was our friend Moose. You know... the one who just died? Don't you even care?"

Betty blanches white. "Of course I care. He was my friend. I also care that he gave his life to save ours and I for one am not going to let his sacrifice be in vain. So if that means getting a fucking move on so that we can stay alive then that's what we are Going. To. Do."

"Red light" Cheryl whimpers. Jughead turns to her.

"What was that Blossom?"

She points a trembling hand to something in the middle of his chest. It’s a small triangle of red dots lights.

"Oh fuck" he breathed. 

He looks up fearfully at Archie who's already reaching for him. Red light flashes and they both go down in a tumble of limbs. Veronica screams and runs to them. She rolls Archie over and sobs in relief when he sits up coughing. Jughead groans, a wound in his shoulder smoking and oozing blood. Betty can breathe again.

"Let's go" she hisses and they scramble to their feet and run, their legs eating the distance to Dilton's house. What they'll do there she doesn't know. Then it comes to her. She quickly dials her phone, Archie giving her a disbelieving look.

"What are you doing?" he panted.

"Calling in the cavalry." she grinned, screaming into the phone as they ran "Dilton's house now! It's time!"

A loud whup whup whup sound echoes in the air ands Cheryl goes down with a yelp, her feet tangled in some kind of cording. Archie and Betty dash back to help her, Veronica keeping a pale Jughead upright. They pull at the cord, pulling back as the metal wire slices at their fingers. Cheryl is wailing, her hands and ankles bloody from her struggles.

Veronica's cry has them looking up and the air shimmers before them, rippling and warping to reveal the monster. It flares it's jaws at them, the short staff in it's hands snapping out on both side, long and lethal looking. They scramble back, grabbing and Cheryl's arms and trying to pull her with them. 

The monster raises the staff, ready to strike at the bound girl when Cheryl screams and pulls at Archie with all her strength. He tumbles on top of her as the staff comes down and hot blood splashes across Betty's face and chest. 

Time stops but for the sound of her shallow breaths. Blood drips down the staff like a river, draining away the life of her beloved as she can do nothing but watch, frozen. The boy she's loved since forever makes a gurgling sound as blood bubbles from his mouth to drip down unto Cheryl's slackened face. The blades of the staff collapse and his body jerks and slides off with a wet plop, his beautiful eyes going dim as his last breath rattles out of him. 

Hands grab the back of her jacket and haul her away and before she is aware of it they are ducking through the bushes of Dilton's backyard. Jughead bangs at the Door and jumps when a rumpled looking Dilton yanks it open and pulls them inside. Betty stumbles over to the wall and slides down to sit on the hardwood floor.

Archie's dead.

He's dead.

No more sweet kisses. No more warm hugs. No more secret smiles. No more hopes and dreams for the future.

Because he's dead.

He'll never fix that old jalopy of his up like he wants to.   
He'll never finally chose Betty or Veronica … or both. She can share.

But then again.. She can't. 

Because he's dead.

She can see veronica weeping on Dilton's couch. Dilton is cleaning Jughead's shoulder wound, talking a mile a minute. He wants to know what's going on. What's happened. Where's Moose? Where's Cheryl? Where's Archie?

She hugs her knees and squeezes her eyes shut. She feels like the one stabbed through the heart. The door bell rings and she jumps, for a moment terrified that it had found them. Then she realizes that it wouldn't have wrung the bell and a hysterical giggle escapes her.

Jughead looks at her. 

"I hate polite killers" she said with mock solemnity, then grinning.

He shrinks back a bit from her and turns to the door. "What are you doing here?"

Sabrina steps into the room, a large cloak draped around her shoulders and a carpet bag in her hand.

"Betty called me" she smiles serenely, setting the bag on the dining room table and snapping it open.

"But… Why?" Dilton steps up next to her, looking around her to where Betty sat.

"To finish what was started yesterday at the cave in."

"I don't understand. What started yesterday?" Veronica growled, "Was it that … that thing out there? what does that have to do with the cave in?"

"It's all my fault" Betty whispered. "I started this. I'm the one who set this in motion. I didn't know what I was thinking."

Dilton hissed as if burned, "The dagger."

Betty gave a tired nod. "I figure it started when I grabbed the dagger. It set off a chain reaction of some sort."

Dilton nods, hopping up to sit on the table where Sabrina is lighting candles. 

"it must have signaled some sort of challenge. Ms. Woods spoke a length about their hunting culture. Fascinating."

Veronica slams a fist down on the coffee table, startling them. 

"I don't care about any of that. All I know is that Archie is DEAD and there is a monster out there killing people and we're next on the list." she snarled through gritted teeth.

"Archie's dead?" Dilton whimpered.

"Get a clue stupid. Where do you think everyone is? You think they kipped off to the lake or some dumb comic conventions? They're DEAD! While you were here geeking out about some stupid rocks, people have been dying out there."

Dilton looked lost and vulnerable, his face ashen. "Moose? Midge?"

Betty's eyes stung with tears. "I'm sorry Dilly. They didn't make it."

Sabrina, done with the candles, put an arm around the boy and guided him to a nearby armchair. He sank into it, his face crumpling, and buried his face in one of the throw pillows, muffling his sobs in the padding. In the following silence, Sabrina went around, taking off all of the lights until only candlelight was left.

"There's no more time left for things that may or may not have happened. Now is the time for what is going to happen."

She unhooks the cloak to reveal a white cotton dress, soft and radiant against her skin. She reaches inside the carpet bag and pulls out a large old book, setting it in the middle of the candles.

"What are you going to do with that?" Veronica asks flatly, "... bash it's brains in with that big book?"

"No." Sabrina smirks and opens the book. She looks at Betty. "but we are going to find a way to defeat the creature in here."

Betty shrugged. "How can Magic help us now?"

Sabrina smiles. "very good Betty. I knew if anyone could figure it out it would be you."

"Magic?" Jughead scoffs, "you're fucking with us right?"

He turns to Veronica "… she's fucking with us right?"

Veronica shrugs. "My father's grandmother was a 'banvor' back in the old country. He told me stories.

Nonplussed, Jughead turns to Dilton.

Dilton hugs the pillow to his chest, his voice still a little watery. "I believe in aliens dude, magic isn't much of a stretch." 

Betty pushes herself to her feet, "So how do we do this? can we blow it up or set it on fire? Can we banish it from this realm? How do we kill it?"

"We can't… " Sabrina pouts, "… well I can't. My magic is earth based and can't affect something that's so very alien. I also cannot inflict grievous bodily harm with my magic. It's against our rules and the backlash of attempting it would surely kills us all."

"So what's the use of this if we can't use it?" Jughead sighs.

The teenage witch looked at Betty expectantly, making her uncomfortable. She seemed to be waiting for Betty to come up with a solution. Betty looked around the room. They were all staring at her now. God how she wished Archie was here. He'd know what to do. She wrapped her arms around herself and forced herself to think.

If the monster was too alien for earth magic to affect then they would have to work the magic on something from earth that could be affected. Maybe a blade or a gun. But then again, Sabrina could not knowingly use magic to cause bodily harm so enchanting any kind of weapon was out. 

She sighed and twisted her body side to side from the waist up. It helped her think when she did that. 

Think Cooper think. What could they do that would save them all? What could they possibly do? Even if they killed it all of their friends would still be dead. She wished the could just go back in time and just never take the dagger in the first place.

She gasped and looked up to meet Sabrina's knowing eyes.

"I want a do-over" she said calmly.

Sabrina nodded, "That… we can handle."

They put Betty to lay in the centre of the table and Sabrina instructs them to take places all around her. There's only enough power to send one person back. It was a toss up between Dilton and Betty as they'd both been in the cave. Finally Betty confessed about the feelings she got every time the dagger was near and Dilton relented. It had started with Betty, she was the one with a higher chance for success.

They'd just begun holding hands and chanting after Sabrina when Betty felt a familiar cold up her spine. Oh no.

"Guys, it's coming" she hissed. 

"No don't move" commanded Sabrina, "… if we stop now she'll never make it through. Stay where you are as long as you can."

"As long as we…are you insane?" Veronica growled, "… if we stay here we'll die"

"if you run you'll die anyway." Dilton whispered harshly, "… the only way to save us… to save EVERYONE… is for Betty to go back. Then we'll all be alive because this never would have happened."

"But if this never happened then how would Betty ever know how and why to go back in time to save us?" Jughead argued.

"Oh my God" Dilton groaned, "...you want to discuss time paradoxes right now? Are you FUCKING kidding me?"

"Hey. It's relevant to the current situation." Veronica chimes in.

Saints Preserve Us, Betty scoffs in utter disbelief as the cold surges higher in her.

"Shut it all of you" Sabrina snaps. "It's magic. Deal with it."

She begins to chant louder, no longer needing to keep their location secret and a roar echoes through the house. Betty looks up at her frightened friends. All of them staring down at her with terror in their eyes. There was courage there too… so much courage and love. 

"I'll fix it. I promise." she weeps, her vision starting to fade. 

She hears a wet snick and a cut off yelp and she turns to see Dilton looking down at his chest in shock. The wicked sharp teeth of the dagger gleam red as they protrude from his chest. Veronica screams as he crumples to the ground and Sabrina's chanting reaches crescendo. The last thing she sees is the last of her friends facing off bravely against the monster and one by one, falling before it.


	8. Chapter 8

[](http://s284.photobucket.com/user/Ziela_Hime/media/12240091_1009102335776900_447977852909507000_n_zpsnnekza6i.jpg.html)

The first thing she sees when her eyes is the ceiling of her room. Its dark for a minute she lays there, having a panic attack. She curls unto her side, sobbing harshly into her pillow, her body wracked with tremors. The pillow comes away from her face bloody and she pushes herself upright, grabbing the phone from her nightstand. She checks the date. It's yesterday. She made it.

She digs into her pocket and pulls out her cell phone, comparing the two side by side. She doesn't know all that much about paradoxes but she figures if the future phone doesn't disappear by the end of today, then she'll destroy it. It's an hour before dawn. Early enough that there's nobody at the site except for one lazy security guard. She has work to do.

She strips out of her bloody clothes and strips the bed. A damp towel from her en suite bath takes care of most of the blood. She can always shower later. Sturdy jeans, long sleeved top and jacket with work boots and she'd ready to go. She snatches her bag and phone and stuffs everything else in a duffel under the bed. She turns to leave them pauses, pulling the duffel and searching through it. She pulls out Reggie's smart phone with a flourish. It has remained in her jacket pocket last night… tomorrow night… whatever. She has an idea and the phone's perfect for it. She just needed a little time in her dad's workshop.

Twenty minutes later she was pedaling down the dark street, carefully sealed bottles of liquid sloshing in her backpack. She hid her bike in the woods a block away and snuck closer to the site. As usual the single guard had his feet kicked up inside the small booth, the latest game playing on his hand held tablet. She made her way around to the far end of the site, taking a send to look up at the building where Midge was surely sleeping. Her heart gave a pang but she shook it off and carefully pulls the little bottles out of her pack. 

They were taped together neatly with the guts of Reggie's expensive phone attached to the side. She set it down in an area well clear of anything else and did quick time back to the part of the site where the dig was located. She slid down behind one of the big excavators and pulled out her cell. She dialed Reggie's number and looked around quickly before pressing send.

The phone rand once then a muffled boom sounded from the far edge of the site. The guard jumped, falling out of his chair as he scrambled for his hat and torch. As he stumbling away to check out the disturbance, Betty was on her feet climbing up and inside the excavator. She waited for a few seconds until she judged enough time for the guard to puff his way to where she'd set the distraction. Satisfied that he was far enough away, she started the machine.

It roared to life under her and she wasted no time in guiding it toward the cave. Considering how thin the ground above the cave was, she knew she'd have no problem collapsing the entire structure. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a black beanie cap, tucking her hair up underneath it. She then pulled out a baseball cap and pulled it low over her eyes. She could see the guard's torching bobbing closer as she made the final turn towards the cave. It was almost over.

She has maybe half a minute left as she swings the long back claw at where the medallion lay hidden, grinning as the ground around it crumbles and falls into the cave below. The guard is closer. If she leaves now she can get away scott-free. But she has to be sure. She turns the machine, using the low maw to push a huge mound of dirt into the hole, burying the medallions and the secrets they keep hopefully forever. She just has enough time to push one more mound before the guard is waving his torch outside the small window. 

She slumps against the seat with a sigh. It's done. 

The angry guard yanks open the excavator door. 

"What the hell do you think your doing man? Are you looking to get fired? Work doesn't start back until tomorrow. Shit" 

Betty stammered, pulling her cap down further over her face. She deepens her voice and keeps her head down.

"Uh yeah… sorry dude. I'm new here… I just ah…. I just wanted to make a good first impression yuh know?"

She jumps down from the machine, grateful for the bulky clothes and boots. She squares her shoulders and widens her stance, adjusting her crotch like she'd seen most construction workers do. She follows the guards nervously as he stomps back to the booth. The sun would rise soon and with it came the protesters if she remembered right.

"Hey man," she grumbled lowly, "… ah… are you gonna report me or anything? I'd hate to lose this job before my first official day."

"Sorry man" the man sneered, " I'm not gonna take shit for your fuck up. Where's your ID?"

Betty shrugged. "Won't be issued until tomorrow I guess. Had a problem with the machine at the office. They said I'd get it on the first day."

The guard shook his head. " and you thought you could some and work without an ID? What kind of idiot are you? Name?"

"ah… Freeman Sir…. Ah… Morgan Freeman." Betty winced under the cap. She was busted for sure.

"Well Freeman…" The guard smirked. "Looks like your first impression will be your last. They're gonna sack you for sure for that shit back there."

They reach the booth but the door is locked. The guard curses, muttering about self locking doors. He glares at Betty. 

"I have to go and get the spares. Don't you even think about moving Punk. I have your name and from that the company can access all your info. We will find you. If you run you'll only make if worse for yourself. So stay put."

Betty nods and throws her hands up in mock surrender. "Sure thing Dude. I don't want to dig a deeper hole for myself Sir."

With one last glare, the guard stalks off. Betty waits until he's out of eyesight before dashing off. She's back to her bike and pedaling home just as the sun comes peaking over the horizon. It feels good against her face, warming her skin. 

She's home in minutes, stripping and stepping into the shower almost immediately. Halfway through scrubbing the dried blood off her body she starts to chuckle. Soon she's laughing from sheer relief and happiness. The next minute she's sobbing, harsh breaths that hurt her chest as she slides down the shower wall to sit. 

It's over. 

It's done.

She did it.

She washes her skin and hair until the water stops running pink and the feels scrubbed raw, both physically and emotionally. Exhausted, she drags herself to bed, sinking unto fresh linens with a heavy sigh. She's asleep within seconds.

The sun is high and her room stifling when she finally awakes. Her cell phone tells her that she has 27 messages. Most of them from Dilton and the Professor. A couple are from Veronica and there's a voice mail from Archie. She listens to it at least twenty five times while weeping silently into her pillow. To hear his sweet voice again, after everything, warms her through and through.

She takes her bloody clothes and bed sheets as well as her clothes from this morning and burns them in the backyard, sipping on one of her dad's cold beers as she watches the flames. She turns her future phone over in her hand then throws it unto the pile, watching almost dispassionately as it shrivels and warps in the heat.

She takes a walk down to the construction site, stopping just as the wood ended. Close enough to see but far enough away so as not to be noticed. The protesters are out in force just like in 'the yesterday that had been' The guard from this morning was cowered near the booth scowling fiercely as his supervisor read him the riot act in from of an irate Mr. Lodge. Veronica was there, looking bored of her mind, leaning against her little red car. 

Betty felt a warm rush of affection at the sight of the brunette. Maybe that three way relationship thing she'd been considering 'before' could work. She'd have to broach the subject carefully. Her gaze roamed a bit before settling on Dilton and the Professor. They were standing on the small incline near the collapsed cave. The professor was moping his forehead with a white handkerchief while Dilton tried to get him to drink more water. She smiles fondly at them both.

"Good day?"

Betty smirked and glanced over her shoulder at Sabrina. "Great day."

Sabrina stepped up beside her. "Hmmm, good." 

They stood in silence for a while, looking out at the bustling site.

"So…" Sabrina tilted her head, " Time travel spell?"

Betty turned. "How…?"

"I know the feel of my own magic. That's a very powerful spell."

Betty nodded. "Very"

"… very dangerous too."

"Very"

Sabrina paused. "Was it worth it?"

Betty closed her eyes and breathed out. She turned to Sabrina with her most solemn face and whispers:

"Very."

Sabrina nods and walks away without a goodbye. Betty just shrugs and turns toward home. Everything else can wait until tomorrow. She would seek each of her friends out tomorrow. Maybe she could even arrange to go to the lake with the others this weekend. I mean, she had a sudden interest in seeing Veronica's new bikini too.

She tucked her hands in her pocket and smiles, enjoying the sun on her face and shoulders. Her phone rings in her pocket and she scans the caller. It's Archie.

"Hello Darling." she grins, giggling at his warm, sweet voice in her ear. "Am I free tonight? Of course. A trip to the lake this weekend? I'd love too. I may even get a new swimsuit for the trip." 

She gives a happy twirl as she listens to him talk and laugh.

She has a feeling that this is going to be the Best. Summer. Ever.


End file.
